DirecTV

According to "people familiar with the situation" that spoke to The Wall Street Journal, AT&T has talked to DirecTV about acquiring the company. Says one of these sources, this deal has followed the Comcast/Time Warner Cable merger, and DirecTV is reportedly receptive to the idea.

DirecTV has launched its latest DVR, the Wireless Genie Mini, a product that offers exactly what its name suggests: connectivity, sans wires. The device has rolled out to customers in the United States, and is hailed as a solution to help decrease electronics clutter.

Following confirmation that Dish Network and Disney penned an agreement that included Internet TV streaming rights, DirecTV has revealed that it is in talks with Disney over the same topic, trying to secure a license for providing Disney-owned channels on its own Internet streaming service.

There’s an addition to the Roku lineup of apps this week, one that brings a wide variety of Showtime-based content to the smart TV system. This update brings the app called Showtime Anytime to Roku, this including TV series like Nurse Jackie and Dexter. This app includes a layout unique to Roku, one that serves up search and recently watched features atop a number of broad categories.

If you are a DirecTV subscriber that has a Roku streaming set top box in your home, an announcement you may have been waiting on has been made. Roku has announced that DirecTV subscribers can now access HBO Go on its line of media streaming devices.

According to sources who spoke to the folks at Bloomberg, both Time Warner Cable and DirecTV are contemplating adopting a free broadcast TV signals model similar to Aereo, which has been embroiled in a long legal case. Under such a business plan, both companies could avoid having to pay retransmission fees, saving astronomical amounts in fees. In addition, one source says Time Warner Cable is looking into buying Aereo.

TiVo is tipped to be among the potential suitors for Hulu, with the DVR company said to be a rival to DirecTV who, in reports late last week, was described as in "very advanced stages" to acquire the on-demand service. The suggestion, from market intelligence firm StreetAccount, described TiVo's recent share price bump as on "follow-through from speculation on a Hulu acquisition", Zatz Not Funny reports.

DirecTV will buy Hulu in a roughly billion-dollar deal, it's reported, with the acquisition in "very advanced stages" according to insiders familiar with the deal. The streaming provider has entertained interest from Time Warner Cable, Yahoo, and others over the past months, but is likely to settle on DirecTV as the new owner, sources tell PandoDaily, and a contract signed by the end of June.

Shouting at your TV will soon have more of an impact than just raising your blood pressure, with news that DirecTV expects to update its smartphone remote app with voice-control this summer. Capable of searching through live TV and on-demand content, and - like Apple's Siri - recognizing natural language rather than requiring the viewer memorize specific controls, CNET reports, the functionality will not only allow you to chatter to your DirecTV box in the living room, but remotely command it while out and about.

Aereo, the would-be cable-disrupting streaming TV service that puts a PVR in the cloud, has been holding clandestine talks with AT&T, Dish Network, and others in an attempt to significantly broaden its availability, insiders claim. Currently available only in NYC, and stung with legal challenges from angry content owners and broadcasters, Aereo has been hunting new distribution methods such as direct-to-phone, sources tell the WSJ, though any eventual deal hangs in part of whether the start-up's service can continue.